


Farewell and Hello

by eurydice72



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Gen, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-14
Updated: 2015-01-14
Packaged: 2018-03-07 13:50:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3175338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eurydice72/pseuds/eurydice72
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pre-series. He never thought he would leave Camelot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Farewell and Hello

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Camelot Drabble, prompt #142, "wanderlust."

He never thought he would leave Camelot. Until he did.

It was home. It was Gwen and his father, the forge and all the townspeople. It was brawls in the street when the knights weren’t around to defend those who needed defending. It was walking anywhere he wanted and having people recognize him, his name a smile on their faces when they would answer his greeting. He could sneak away from work and meet up without fear, and then he could sneak home again when duties called his companion elsewhere.

Elyan never envisioned those duties growing into more.

“You can’t be serious.”

“Why not? I’ve always wanted to be a knight. You know that.”

“Yes, but—”

“What did you think you were doing all these years, helping me with my swordplay?”

Spending time with his best friend, mostly, doing something they both loved. And yes, he’d heard all those dreams, saw every wistful glance at the knights when they would be out, but he never anticipated the day actually arriving when the dreams would become reality.

But if he continued to argue, it would drive an even greater wedge between them. It’d been bad enough trying to hide their friendship from those who would see the differences in their classes as reason enough to keep them separate. He couldn’t be the cause behind their friendship disintegrating completely.

“Nothing will change,” Leon said when Elyan let it go. “You’ll see.”

He was wrong, of course. Everything had to change. Only a noble could become a knight, after all. This was one place Elyan would never be able to follow.

On the day Leon tested with the others to become a knight of Camelot, Elyan watched from the shadows. Nobody knew he was there. Leon certainly didn’t. Nobody knew his cheers were loudest when Leon won. 

Nobody saw him when he walked away from Camelot a week later.

This was a path Leon couldn’t follow, one Elyan could take on his own, away from the ghost of the friend who could no longer look him in the eye without having his status come between them. He didn’t know where he was going or what he was looking for, just that he needed to be elsewhere.

He never thought he would leave Camelot. Until he had to.


End file.
